Our six Principles for Sustainable Business Accommodation

These principles can be found from Forenom Corporate Responsibility Guidelines 2019.

23.04.2019 - Forenom

We know our corporate customers wish to operate and consume responsibly while managing their costs effectively. We consider it our responsibility as a partner to find the most effective way to serve our customers while minimizing our negative environmental and social impact.

For us, efficiency means everyday decisions and acts toward a more sustainable business. In this blog, we present our six everyday principles for more sustainable business accommodation.

1. We avoid unnecessary new construction

We avoid unnecessary new construction by utilizing the existing capacity in the market whenever possible and renovate buildings rather than building new sites. Forenom properties are also designed efficiently and compactly. For instance, we save square meters for more spacious apartments and rooms by building small yet modern entrances and lobbies.

2. We maximize the usage of housing capacity

Our flexible housing solutions maximize the usage of housing capacity on the market, as companies and organizations have no need to buy or rent their own capacity to accommodate employees. This helps improve the availability of rental apartments while promoting the more sustainable use of housing capacity.

We also maximize the efficiency and usage of our capacity. We monitor the utilization of our properties in real time and minimize the risk of units sitting empty. In 2018, Forenom’s total occupancy rate was 77% and in 2019 our goal is to maximize the utilization even further and achieve an 80% occupancy rate. One simple way to accomplish this is our webshop, which automatically recommends apartments and rooms that fill any gaps in our booking capacity.

3. We follow the one-visit principle

We offer over 7,000 accommodation options across the Nordic countries, so our apartment visits for cleaning and maintenance work have a significant accumulative impact on the environment. All of our employees follow the ‘one-visit principle’, which means that all maintenance and cleaning work in an apartment is carried out during a single visit and our staff’s driving routes are optimized to reduce environmental impact. We use digital and automatic key delivery to avoid unnecessary mileage or lost keys.

4. We work closely with our suppliers to ensure sustainable procurement

When choosing a supplier, we pay close attention to the company’s ethical choices, environmental certification and the greening of procurement processes. We continuously monitor and follow up with our suppliers on the fulfillment and implementation of Forenom Code of Conduct.

5. We optimize our water and energy usage

We are committed to reducing the use of natural resources, mainly water and energy. We clean the apartments only when necessary, allowing us to save water and energy by avoiding, among other things, unnecessary washing of linen. Electricity accounts for most of our energy consumption, so we are constantly looking for new solutions to reduce power consumption and increase the use of renewable energy. We want to actively monitor our electricity and water consumption and help our customers to use water and electricity in an environmentally friendly way.

6. We focus on serving flexible stays

Our strategic focus is to provide home-like accommodation solutions for companies that require length of stays of more than seven days. For example, the average length of stay in our serviced apartments is 60 days. By providing flexible stays in fully-furnished apartments, we endorse eco-efficiency, as companies have no need to rent or buy empty apartments and furnish them with single-use furniture. In fact, our solution allows companies to use and buy only what they need – for as long as they need it. Our fully-equipped kitchens also allow our guests to minimize their environmental footprint by cooking their own meals instead of going out to eat out every day.